Page 34 of Wicked Minds
*kissing face emoji*
Some of the anger dissipates as I burst out laughing, and I respond with a middle finger emoji before pocketing my phone and climbing into my car.
11
RILEY
The rest of the week goes by relatively uneventfully. I’ve spotted Royce a few times on campus, the two of us exchanging nothing more than a brief nod or acknowledging smile before going our separate ways. Logan has shown up every morning and lunch as though it’s become his life’s mission to ensure I’m caffeinated and fed. Despite my telling him on Monday that I don’t need his charity, food deliveries have continued to arrive every few days with organic fruit and vegetables and the expensive kind of pure orange juice that I usually gloss over when I’m at the grocery store. I wouldn’t ever admit it to Logan, but I groanedloudlywhen I took that first sip. It wasa-mazing!There will be no going back to the cheap stuff now.
As for Grayson, well, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he’s avoiding me. On a campus this size, it’s impossiblenotto cross paths with him, and yet I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him since Monday. The only reason we mustn’t have come across each other last semester is because he actively went out of his way to avoid me… which is why I’m starting to believe he’s using the same tactic this term. The question is why. Why does he feel likehe needs to avoid me? If anything, I’d have expected him to be doing everything he could to torture me.
The fact he’s stayed away has a little bubble of hope growing in my stomach. Hope that he may be starting to question everything. That he may be starting to believe what I’ve been telling him.
Of course, it’s just as likely—more so, probably—that he’s avoiding me so he doesn’t strangle the life out of me and end up joining his dad in a prison cell.
Yeah, that seems much more conceivable.
All thoughts of Grayson fall by the wayside as I step into the dining hall on Friday and find Logan sitting at what has become my regular table. He’s remained a table over all week, although he has moved a seat closer to mine every day, and today, it looks like he’s taken the leap to actually sit with me.
He’s also been talking more during our lunches. Asking me questions about my classes this semester and my life in general. Sometimes, I’ve had to evade because the answers involved telling him about Aurora, and any time that’s happened, it’s left me feeling guilty. Not necessarily guilty for not telling him. I know I don’t owe him that. More that I know he’dwantto know. He’d be excited. I still remember how he talked about his nieces and nephews, the way he lit up. He loves kids, and I’m pretty sure if he knew of Rora’s existence, he’d have a hundred and one questions about her.
I stall in the doorway, picturing it… them together. Laughing as they discuss their favorite Paw Patrol episodes and argue over which color is the best. He’d be good at making my little girl smile, something I fear she doesn’t do nearly as often as she should.
Thinking of her only reminds me that I still haven’t spoken to Aurora since Christmas Day. Frustration bubbles up within me,and I have to push it away as I approach Logan, not wanting him to ask questions I’m not ready to answer.
“Figured we could eat lunch at the same table rather than talking across the room,” Logan says with an easy smile.
I arch a brow at him, making it obvious I know exactly what he’s doing. His responding smile is unrepentant.
Not seeing any point in arguing with him, I sit down and take in today’s variety of options. Every day is something different, and I have to admit I’m enjoying the mixture and variety. Beats the same old dining hall food every day.
“How come you always eat alone?” Logan asks as I’m sampling the BBQ ribs.
“Ehh, because there’s only one scholarship student every year.”
“What about the scholarship students in other years?”
I shrug, having never actually met the other students. I guess, usually, I’d be in a dorm with at least one of them, and we’d have had a better chance of meeting and getting to know one another, but living off campus, I haven’t had that same opportunity.
“Well, what about the other students in our year? Aren’t you friends with any of them?”
I can’t stop the skeptical look that crosses my face. “Have you met most of the student body here? You’re the only one who is happy to hang out in the dining hall.”
“There are other places to hang out,” Logan argues.
“Not when you’re broke, there aren’t. Some students are polite and say hi in classes, but I don’t hang out with any of them outside of class.”
Creases form along his forehead as he takes in this information.
“Royce said the school isn’t covering your accommodation fees because you’re living off campus, even though you’re only living there because they’re redoing the dorms this year. Hebribed a lady in the office,” he tacks on at my puzzled look. “Is that why you’re working at Lux?”
It’s another one of those questions that veers particularly close to acknowledging Aurora. “It’s one of the reasons,” I say vaguely.
“That’s bullshit. The school is ripping the dick out of that.”
I shrug but don’t disagree. “It is what it is.”
“Maybe so, but if you’d been in the dorms, you’d have had more time and opportunities to get to know the other students. You could have hung out in the communal kitchen or the theatre room. It was always a really friendly place to chill when I was a freshman.”
